Moralia in Job 1433 part 4/4

'I marvel that you are so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ' (Gal. I, 6). To whom also, in open rebuke, after the rest he adds: 'O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?' (ibid. III, 1). For hard minds, unless they were struck by open rebuke, would in no way recognize the evil which they had done. For often those who are shameless perceive that they have sinned in such things in proportion as they are rebuked for the sins which they have committed, so that they esteem those faults to be lesser which a lesser invective chastises, and those to be greater which they have seen vehemently reproved.

Whence it is necessary that the speech of the preacher should always be formed according to the quality of the hearers, lest it speak harsh things to the bashful, or gentle things to the shameless. But what wonder is it if the dispenser of God's word does this, when even the farmer who casts seeds into the earth first foresees for what seeds the quality of the earth may seem suited, and after he has foreseen the quality, then he scatters the seeds? But because we have drawn out our discourse rather long concerning the quality of teaching, it behooves us to return to the order of exposition which we had begun. (Verse 20): 'But if the just man turn away from his justice and commit iniquity, I will lay a stumbling-block before him; he shall die, because thou hast not announced it to him.'

'He shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand.' Because the preacher kept silence toward the just man who had fallen into sin, he is held guilty of his blood. And he who was not zealous to be diligent in preaching has become a partaker in the condemnation. But when it is said, 'He shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered,' this is chiefly to be considered by us: that when we commit evils, without cause we recall to memory our past good deeds, since in the perpetration of evils there ought to be no confidence in past goods.

But it may be asked whether the just man is to be preached to after he has fallen, or also before he falls. The preacher ought to be watchful, lest he come to a fall, without doubt even before he falls. For there follows (verse 21): 'But if thou announce to the just man that the just man sin not, and he sin not, living he shall live, because thou hast announced to him; and thou hast delivered thy soul.' If therefore the preacher delivered his soul because he warned the just man that he should not sin, when the just man fell to sin while the preacher was silent, the preacher, because he kept silence, is held guilty. But which of us, I ask, is sufficient for these things—to correct sinners diligently, and also to watch over the just lest they fall?

For we, conscious of our own weakness, when we behold just men, do not presume to admonish them to hold the way of justice, which we see they do hold; and yet it is the preacher's debt to admonish even the just. Whence the excellent preacher said: 'I am a debtor both to the wise and to the unwise' (Rom. I, 14). But in all these things which are said concerning the just man converted to iniquity, this is laborious to speak of, this greatly to be dreaded, which the Lord says: 'I will lay a stumbling-block before him.' For He says: 'If the just man turn away from his justice and commit iniquity, I will lay a stumbling-block before him.' For we say that if he commits iniquity, he stumbles, and altogether true is what we say.

Why does Almighty God still lay a stumbling-block before him whom He already perceives to have struck against and fallen through the iniquity which he has committed? But the judgments of Almighty God are severe; and He who long awaits the sinner that he may return, to one who does not return but despises, still lays down where he may strike against more grievously. For a sin which is not more quickly blotted out through penitence is either a sin and the cause of sin, or a sin and the punishment of sin, or a sin at once both the cause and the punishment of sin. For everything which is first committed is a sin.

But if it is not more quickly wiped away by penitence, by a just judgment Almighty God permits the mind bound by sins to fall into another fault as well, so that the mind which by weeping and correcting would not amend what it had done, begins to heap sin upon sin. Therefore a sin which is not washed away by the lament of penitence is at once both a sin and the cause of sin, because from it arises that whereby the mind of the sinner is bound yet more deeply. But a sin which follows from a sin is at once both a sin and the punishment of sin, because, as blindness increases, it is generated from the retribution of the prior fault, so that the very increases of vices are, as it were, already certain punishments in the sinner.

But it sometimes happens that one and the same sin is at once both a sin and the punishment of sin, and at the same time the cause of sin. For let us set before our eyes someone who has coveted the property of his neighbor, which, because he could not do so openly, he seized by theft; but, placed under accusation of the theft, denied on oath that he had seized it. To this man, therefore, the coveting was a sin and a cause of sin, because through it he came to plunder. But the very theft by which he seized the coveted thing became to him both a sin and the punishment of sin, because from the retribution of the covetousness now not restrained it came about that he came to theft, and the fault of the heart increased into deed by the avenging of blindness. But because he took care to cover the theft with perjury, from sin he again begot sin.

The theft, therefore, which proceeded from covetousness and gave rise to perjury, became a sin and the punishment of sin to the preceding fault, a sin and the cause of sin to the subsequent fault, because, born of the one, it begot the other. This Paul well intimated concerning certain men who understood God but did not honor Him, saying: 'When they had known God, they glorified him not as God, nor gave thanks, but became vain in their thoughts' (Rom. I, 21). Behold, here is a sin and the cause of sin. What follows from this cause he adds: 'And their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and they changed the glory of the incorruptible'

'God's glory into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things' (ibid., 22, 23). Behold, here is a sin and the punishment of sin. But it would be only a sin and the punishment of sin, if from this sin yet another did not follow. For after their unbelief it is added: 'Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves' (ibid., 24). Those therefore who, knowing God, glorified Him not as God, from that sin and cause of sin were led also to this: that they slipped into the worship of serpents and of birds.

But because through this blindness also they fell even to uncleanness and to the dishonor of the flesh, that very blindness of their unbelief is both a sin and the punishment of sin to the preceding understanding, but to the subsequent uncleanness it became a sin and the cause of sin. But because these things have been long treated of in the books of the Morals (Book XXV of the Morals, nn. 23, 24), we need not now dwell longer upon them. This, however, must be considered by us with trembling: how the just and Almighty God, when He is angered at preceding sins, permits that the blinded mind should stumble even in others. Whence Moses says: 'The sins of the Amorites are not yet complete' (Gen. XV, 16). David also says:

'Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity, that they enter not into thy justice' (Psal. LXVIII, 28 [LXIX, 27]). Another prophet also says: 'Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood' (Hosea IV, 2). For blood touches blood when sin is added to sin, so that before the eyes of God the soul is stained with iniquities joined together. The apostle Paul says: 'That they may always fill up their sins' (I Thess. II, 16). To John also it is said through the angel: 'He that hurteth, let him hurt still; and he that is in filth, let him be filthy still' (Apoc. XXII, 11). Whence now too the Lord says: 'If the just man turn away from his justice and commit iniquity, I will lay a stumbling-block before him.'

As if he were to say openly: Because by his repentance he refused to see where he had already stumbled, forsaking him in righteous judgment, I will set it so that he stumbles elsewhere also. Yet for the Lord thus to appoint is in no way to press a man toward sinning, but rather to be unwilling to free him from his sin; as is said of Pharaoh: 'I will harden his heart' (Exod. VII, 5). For the Lord does not harden the heart of the sinner by acting upon it, but he is said to harden when he does not free from hardening. For the merciful God grants us time for repentance;

but when we turn the patience of his grace into the increase of our guilt, that very time which he mercifully appointed for sparing us he turns more severely to smiting, so that when a man, having received even a span of time, has been unwilling to return, he thereby heaps his own evils up to condemnation through that very means by which he might have washed them away, had he been willing to be converted. Whence it is written: 'Dost thou not know that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God' (Rom. II, 4).

Therefore out of the goodness of Almighty God the reprobate treasures up wrath for himself against the day of wrath, because while time is received for repenting and is instead spent for sinning, he turns the very remedy of grace into the increase of guilt. Whence Almighty God also, because he sees the remedies he has bestowed being drawn toward the increase of guilt, turns that very goodness which he bestowed into the severity of judgment, so that he may afterward smite the more from the same source whence now he waits the more. And because man will not forsake evil that he may live, he increases the ground whereby he dies. But whether the just man falls into fault or the sinner into death, it is to be feared lest through his silence the guilt of the sinners equally entangle the watchman.

But meanwhile, as I speak, I wish to turn my eyes away from my very self, and lo, again the divine word thrusts me back upon myself, that I may behold my own negligence, and dread that these things which I hear are spoken to me. For as I said above, whose heart, scattered abroad in cares innumerable, can gather itself back to itself? For when can I both anxiously attend to all the things around me, and behold my own self with a collected mind? When can I correct the wickedness of the depraved by pursuing them, guard the deeds of the good by praising and admonishing, and show terror to some and sweetness to others?

When am I able both to think upon the things that are needful for the brethren, and to keep watch against hostile swords by the city's vigils, and to provide lest by a sudden onslaught the citizens perish, and amid all these things to spend the word of exhortation fully and effectually for the guarding of souls? For to speak of God belongs to a mind very tranquil and free. For then is the tongue well directed in discourse, when the mind has securely rested in stillness; for troubled water does not give back the image of him who looks upon it, but the countenance of the beholder is seen in it only when it is not stirred. What exhortation, then, dearest brethren, can your watchman make to you, whom the confusion of so many affairs disturbs?

Assuredly he of whom we speak, the prophet, seeing the temple in the final revelation, among other things relates what he beheld in that same temple, saying: 'The earth reached up to the windows, and the windows were shut' (Ezech. XLI, 16). Paul the apostle also says: 'For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are' (1 Cor. III, 17; 2 Cor. VI, 16). Now in this temple the priests and watchmen are the windows, who pour the light of holy preaching upon the faithful people. But when the earth reaches up to the windows, the windows are shut, because when earthly thought grows up in the hearts of the priests, the windows pour forth no light, since the priests fall silent from the office of preaching.

There is yet another thing exceedingly grievous in the order of priests, namely that they are not able, as those who lead a quiet and secluded life, to remain fixed in their contemplation. For these, as we said above, who are far from the place of rule, can wash away the stains of their sins with weepings, and after their weepings abide in the same sorrow of mind; as it is written also of that good woman who had prayed at the tabernacle, and did not turn her mind away from her intention after the grace of compunction, when it is said: 'And her countenance was no more changed in different directions' (1 Kings I, 18).

In her it is to be considered by us that as the woman who sought a son wept, so ought the soul to weep that seeks God. But the priest, even after his compunction, when he weeps, is compelled to take knowledge of whatever things are needful for his sons, and to hear patiently those very things which his mind shrinks from, and after heavenly sighs to bear the burdens of carnal men of whatever sort, and often, with those who come upon him, to pour his heart out into diverse conditions. For sometimes he rejoices over spiritual gains, but when some mourner comes upon him, unless he takes that man's grief upon himself, he has no compassion for his tribulation. And sometimes he grieves over the losses of souls, and suddenly there come upon him those who rejoice over certain prosperities of their own;

and if the priest does not rejoice together with their gladness, he is believed to love the less those sons in whose joy he does not exult, especially since Paul says: 'Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep' (Rom. XII, 15). Nothing therefore do I see so burdensome to the order of priests as to bend the rigor of the mind by compassion, and to change the disposition according to the persons that come upon them; and yet this is exceedingly necessary. For when by his preaching a sinner is brought back to the grace of good work, if the preacher himself is praised, he seems ungrateful. Whence also through this same prophet it is said in a later part: 'And when the priests minister within, let them not wear woolen garments' (Ezech. XLIV, 17). Of whom it is added:

'And when they go forth to the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they had ministered, and shall lay them up in the treasury of the sanctuary' (Exod. XXVIII, 43; Ezech. XLIV, 19). Woolen garments are indeed coarser. But when the priest approaches the holy ministry, when he enters within through compunction, it is necessary that he be clothed as with a linen garment by subtler understanding. But when he goes out to the people, it behoves that he lay up the garments in which he had ministered within, and appear to the people clothed with other garments; because if he keeps himself in the rigor of his compunction, if he persists in that sorrow which he had at the time of prayer, he does not admit himself to take up words about outward things.

And what shall the flock do concerning things needful, if the shepherd refuses to hear and weigh even that which the present time chooses? Therefore the priest, going out before the people, puts on coarser garments, that he may frame the habit of his mind, for the profit of his sons, to endure even earthly things. Weigh, I pray, dearest brethren, how great is the labor of the watchman both to stretch his heart toward the sublime, and suddenly to recall it to the depths, and in the sublimity of inner knowledge to make the mind small, and, for the outward affairs of his neighbors, so to speak, suddenly to grow gross in thought. Therefore it is not now necessary for me to expound the words of the prophet, but to lay bare my own misery before you.

Wherefore I ask that your prayer may make me such that I may be able to profit both myself and you. He is able, out of your intercession, to grant these things to me, unworthy and weak as I am, who out of his own compassion deigned to be made weak for us. For he is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. I, 24), who took upon himself our weakness, that out of his own strength he might strengthen us, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, throughout all ages of ages. Amen.